“You can clearly see the big diamonds on his back, so it was a big Eastern diamondback rattlesnake. You can see its rattles and the big viper head,” Wilson told InsideEdition.com. “When it started heading right at us — that really got our attention.”

He explained that they were just finishing up their trip when they spotted the snake in the water. Wilson speculated it had been swimming between islands, and began slithering toward their boat when it noticed the closer landing spot.

“We were all kind of looking at it and freaking out a little bit at what we were seeing, and then it started coming at us,” Wilson recalled. “I didn’t need a five-foot-long rattlesnake coming home with us, that’s when I said, ‘Bye bye, snake,’ and we motored on out of there.”

Thankfully, their boat was far enough from the rattlesnake that the group was able to get away safely.

“In 25 years, I’ve maybe seen two snakes and they’ve been benign,” Wilson said.